Sept. 11, five years on

RICHMOND, Va. (BP) — Five years after one of our worst national nightmares unfolded in broad daylight, the echoes of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to reverberate.

Several regional wars – and a global one – are being fought as a result of that day. Major terrorist strikes have shaken England, Spain, Indonesia, India, and other nations. This month, a 9/11-magnitude attack on U.S-bound airliners was foiled.

World wars and the titanic struggle between communism and democracy marked the 20th century. The 21st, only a few years old, already seems plagued by a bloody, open-ended guerrilla conflict between cultures.

It’s not a particularly friendly environment for Christian missions. Neither was the pagan Roman world in which Jesus and His early followers lived and began to spread the gospel. As Americans caught in the eye of the storm, however, perhaps we overestimate the repercussions of 9/11 and the terror war.

“When you look at the globe, there are many countries that have so many problems of their own that what happens in America has very little impact on them,” says Gordon Fort, overseas operations chief for the International Mission Board. “Take West Africa. You could go to those countries and say, ‘What do you think about what happened on 9/11?’ and many of the people would say, ‘Hey, I’m just trying to get a meal today. I’m hungry and my people are dying of malaria, and AIDS is killing half our population.’ 9/11 is a remote thing that happened to somebody else.”

What is urgent for West Africans – and millions of other people in hurting, spiritually dark areas? The need for hope. They will accept it from almost anyone who offers it, and followers of Christ offer a hope that does not disappoint.

That’s not to say that risks have not increased since 9/11 for missionaries and local Christians. Eight Southern Baptist workers have died in terrorist attacks since 2002. Many other believers have paid with their lives for following Christ in dangerous places.

But their sacrifice is not in vain.

“The Lord is making amazing breakthroughs in the world of Islam,” says one mission strategist. “Why? Muslims are being called [by God]. People are having visions. Muslims do not want one foot in Islam and another in Christianity; they make clean breaks. They want the intimacy of the Holy Spirit.”

Also, we continue to see missionaries ask to fill assignments in some pretty tough, predominantly Muslim areas. What makes a moth fly into the light, firemen rush into burning towers, missionaries volunteer for the deepest and darkest lostness in the world?

I’m not sure about moths, but for the rest it is the old hymn that comes to mind: “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, tell them of Jesus, mighty to save.”

Jim Riddell, who leads the IMB missionary personnel consulting team, says the realities of a post-9/11 world have only increased the determination of new Southern Baptist missionaries. Well over half of new appointees go to restricted-access areas – difficult places where most of the world’s unreached peoples live. Up to 40 percent of new long-termers have previously lived and served overseas in shorter-term assignments, so they know what they’re getting into.

“We’ve adapted to 9/11. We’re preparing our personnel to live in a dangerous world,” Riddell says. “In terms of motivation, I do not believe that has stemmed the flow of missionaries the least bit. If anything, it has strengthened the resolve of many people. We continue to have people going to hard places in the world. Many of them have already been there and they want to go back. They capture a vision for the world through Christian eyes rather than CNN eyes. That makes all the difference.

“The whole church needs that vision in our day. The only way to get it is to keep going into the world – despite the risks.”

“When you look at the push of the gospel globally, when you see where Christians are coming together with the express purpose of reaching the last unreached people groups, there’s no doubt that a synergy is building that I believe cannot be stopped,” Fort asserts. “We’re going to see the gospel proclaimed in every language, people, race, and nation in our generation.”